I once got a spear phishing call from a scammer claiming to be the CEO of the company I work for. Even though I barely know the CEO, the phrases he was using was obviously wrong.

I'd imagine that's even more obvious for any family member. If a family member calls from any number that's not their number, my first question will be an honest "How the heck did you remember my phone number?"

What a dystopian, terrifying prospect.

On a personal level I keep a referee's whistle handy in case I'm talking to a scammer live. They are usually wearing headsets and any damage I can do to their hearing with that may save an old persons savings in the following few minutes. Best technique is to speak softly so they turn their volume up then let rip on the whistle

The answer? A scam call answering AI bot which engages with the scammer (or the scammer AI bot) and wastes as much of their time and international call fees as possible without giving them a valid bank account or gift card number, Kitboga[1]-style. As soon as you detect the call is coming from a scammer, you push a button and your phone takes it over from there.

Eventually we'll just have a network of AI scambots calling up AI scambaiters and having completely useless conversations in synthesized English with each other for hours upon hours and nobody will remember why.

1: https://www.youtube.com/@KitbogaShow